TECHNOLOGY ABA Journal
March 2000
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TURNING the PAGE
on PAPER
As electronic devices and case management software make their mark on the profession, lawyers are discovering that technology makes a welcome partner
BY HOPE VINER SAMBORN
Something is missing from Florida attorney Rod Tennyson's office.
Most lawyers' offices are recognizable from the papers that sit
in stacks on the floor or in accordion folders crammed onto shelves.
But in Tennyson's West Palm Beach office there's nary a pile on
the carpet and only a few file cabinets.
Tennyson is one of a growing number of lawyers who have gone paperless, converting their law offices from piles of files to electronic information, all with the help of computer software and some nifty peripherals.
Tennyson's solo commercial litigation practice once was document heavy. "Most client files were voluminous," he says. To take a case to the courthouse, to a client meeting or negotiations, he would cart a bulky file around with him and search the folders for documents when he got there.
Now Tennyson totes his laptop and keeps his client files on CD-ROMs, enabling him to retrieve documents with a few clicks of a mouse. He receives depositions via e-mail or on disk. All faxes are received into and sent from the computer. He sends documents to opposing counsel or clients in electronic format.
Like Tennyson, Denver family law attorney Steven Harhai made the switch to an almost paperless law office six years ago. It allows him to keep pace with large firms, save money and operate more efficiently.
All notes, documents, correspondence and pleadings for each client are entered into the computer and electronically linked; a simple mouse click will move the user from one document to another. That way, says Harhai, "You don't have thousands of pieces of paper you can't read or you can't find."
The switch to paperless practices is a remarkable trend for a profession that has for centuries relied almost entirely on paper. Lawyers have been notorious for their stubborn resistance to adopting new technologies.
E-Courtrooms Have Arrived
Many courts and federal agencies are now taking filings by e-mail. And more trial attorneys are integrating technology into their courtroom presentations and strategies, especially since many courts already have the technology in place.
Failure to keep up with the times can work against you, says Bob Moss, a Dallas lawyer and technology consultant. For example, he says, impeaching a witness by playing a videotape of a deposition will have a greater impact on a jury than doing it with a paper document of the testimony.
"You can use the paper deposition and ask, 'Didn't you say this at your deposition?' " says Moss. The witness can always deny it or say that he doesn't remember. But if you play the relevant video deposition for the jury on a 50-inch screen, he says, "This is what the jury is going to pay attention to."
Attorneys with paper-reduced systems save storage and floor space, lessen the need for file cabinets, decrease the cost of paper and often eliminate offsite storage. In addition, these offices save time spent looking for files or making copies.
Tennyson calculates that he took home 50 cents of every dollar brought into his solo practice before the move to a paperless system. Today, he says he takes home 62 cents for every dollar his firm earns.
Harhai shares his practice with another attorney, two paralegals and two other support personnel. Before converting to a paperless system, he says one employee had the sole responsibility of filing papers. That person now does the initial paperless entry for no more than an hour a day. Harhai says he saves on salary and benefits with the paperless system.
One Step at a Time
To go paperless, lawyers first need to know how to convert the papers they have into computer files. Each day, Tennyson reviews his mail and selects documents to copy into the computer through a scanner. After a document is scanned into the system, it is indexed using key words so that it can be easily retrieved.
All this is done with off-the-shelf software that costs less than $800. The scanned document is stored as a digital image, a picture that cannot be manipulated in the computer.
If Tennyson receives a draft of a settlement agreement, for example, and wants to modify it, he takes another tack. He asks the drafting counsel to supply the agreement in word processing format on a disk, or he scans the agreement and uses special software that will convert the scanned document to a word processed document. Because conversion is time-consuming, most attorneys instead opt to receive documents in word processing format only.
Harhai's system is similar. Every pleading or correspondence is scanned into a computer database and stored on a server--a computer that allows the document to be retrieved simultaneously by everyone in his office.
"It eliminates the logjams when paper is being distributed" and gets lost in someone's office, says Harhai. "In addition, if you are working on complex cases, multiple people need to have access to documents at the same time. This system eliminates waiting time and inefficiencies," he says.
"This is a mini-web [that mirrors] our office," says Harhai of the carefully linked electronic file system. "It saves us time, and it is easier to develop theories and arguments."
Notes, for example, are easily retrieved. If Harhai wants to find all notes about an asset, he types the asset name into the computer. All related notes will appear. With a paper system, he would have to review each note in the client file to find the asset mentioned. "That would be a half-day project," he says. "Now we will have it in five seconds."
With Harhai's system, documents are tagged by topic, such as pleadings, correspondence, issues, arguments, facts, legal authorities, witnesses and notes. Then an electronic link cross-references items.
For instance, each fact that supports a particular argument is noted. If that fact is supported by a document, the two are linked and with a mouse click can be retrieved. This electronic organization allows Harhai to easily prepare an outline of a closing argument.
"It is not a dumb repository of data," he says. "It is a self-organizing system. If you use it as intended, the system will generate a comprehensive plan for a case."
Initial Effort Pays Off
Although setting up this cross-referenced system may seem time-consuming, Harhai says he actually saves time and money because he doesn't need to physically track down a file or search through one. Documents are never misfiled, he adds, and he estimates that his paperless system has cut filing expenses by at least 60 percent.
Harhai also has eliminated paper from his back office. Attorneys and paralegals enter their work schedules directly into the computer and check the bills for errors online. "People waste huge amounts of time by writing out paper time slips and having a staff person enter [the information] into the time program. You are doubling the task and you create an additional source of errors," he says.
E-mail communication also is an essential part of Harhai's paperless system. It saves his staff time when they need more information. A phone call to the client might take 15 minutes because they often chat about extraneous matters, but an e-mail request can be accomplished in two minutes.
In addition, Harhai and his staff often provide clients with status reports via e-mail. "It takes a minute or two, and they are gratified," he says. "It is not terribly cost-effective or possible to talk to every client every day, but you can send an e-mail without much time. It increases client satisfaction."
An important component of any paperless system is providing a backup for computer files. Harhai has many such backups. One involves multiple hard drives that can rebuild data if one of the drives fails. In addition, he has a spare hard drive that can be pressed into service if necessary. Data also is backed up on tape each night. One master tape is kept offsite.
Tennyson considers his CD-ROM backups as insurance if a major disaster should strike. "If we have a hurricane in this county, I'm the only attorney who will be practicing law," he says.
Originally, Tennyson archived information on tapes. But tapes have a rather limited shelf life--some believe it might only be two years. He converted his taped storage to CD-ROMs that are kept offsite. He hopes that this medium will last through the 20 years he usually keeps files.
Moss says that the CD-ROMs should last that long, but that it would be wise to keep an old CD-ROM player because technology is certain to change during the next 20 years.
When All Else Fails ...
Even with his multiple electronic backups, Harhai still saves some original paper documents. "I'm not that brave," he says. "If Y2K had really been an event and something we had missed had wiped out our data, or if some virus problem creeps in, it is conceivable we could lose everything."
And although the bulk of Tennyson's practice is paperless, he still keeps originals of important affidavits, some original trial exhibits and signature pages for safekeeping in case they are needed at trial.
At least 41 states allow copies or scanned business documents to be introduced into evidence as if they were the original documents, says Moss. However, originals of wills and deeds and similar documents should be kept because states have been less willing to accept copies of these documents as evidence.
There's another advantage to the paperless system: It allows attorneys and their staff more flexibility to work outside their offices. Since he implemented his system, Tennyson and his family spend more time at their summer home in Maine while he works to keep his Florida clients happy--all without lugging a mountain of paper.
His secretary in Florida scans all mail, pleadings and other papers. Tennyson then uses his laptop to retrieve these items via a phone connection between his two offices. While he still must travel back to Florida for occasional court appearances during the hot summer months, at least he doesn't have to stay for long.
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Hope Viner Samborn, a lawyer, contributes regularly to the ABA
Journal.